One Winged Angel
by Princess of Hell
Summary: Midgar: a cold, dark foreboding city dangerous in daytime and night. Located underneath a metal plate, that holds a city that wasn't so dirty, far better off then the one below it. But sometimes even in the worst places a light can be found. AeriSeph. R/R


**Disclaimer**: Yo. This is an AeriSeph fanfic, and I'm attempting to stay somewhat true to the game. ::thinks for a while:: Oh yeah. This is a disclaimer so I may as well say why I need it: "I don't own Final Fantasy VII or any of it's corresponding characters. I am borrowing permission to bend these characters to my every will. I'm good." Not that any of you were really stupid enough to think I actually did own the characters…

You weren't were you?

**One Winged Angel**  
_By Prince(ss) of Hell_

Once upon a time…

…there was a city. It was a cold, dark, foreboding city that went by the name of Midgar. This city was very dangerous, it was located underneath a giant metal plate, on top of this plate was another city that was not so dirty, and far better off then the one below it. But even in the dirtiest town, a light can be found.

A star among the rubble, a diamond in the rough.

In this mangy little town their lived a girl. A girl with a special gift, a gift which some loved her for, and a gift which others hated her for. But people only hate what they do not understand, and many did not understand this young woman.

She could always be found in an old run-down church in the slums of Midgar, a place which seemed far too dangerous for one as innocent as she. In this church, she tended to a small garden. A strange sight to see in any part of Midgar, since the town received little light and was heavily polluted. But this woman, had what would be called a 'green thumb', a knack for plants and flowers is what this little flower girl had.

And no one could take it from her, nor imitate it. She was indeed, on of a kind.

And for that some stayed away from her, fearing what was left unknown and that which couldn't be answered. Children enjoyed being in her company, and she enjoyed being in theirs. She wasn't an unpleasant girl at all, she was just…different.

Her name was Aeris Gainsborough, currently at the age of twenty-one she resides with her mother, Elmyra Gainsborough, in a small house located in Sector 6 [1].

On this particular day Elmyra had left Aeris home alone to go visit a cousin. Aeris had been in her kitchen, cleaning up to surprise her mother upon her return when the loud crackling of thunder was heard in the distance, followed by the harsh pounding of rain against the windows and roof of her home.

It didn't rain very often in Midgar, but when it did rain, it stormed. Aeris gasped and immediately dropped what she was doing to run upstairs grabbing a blanket before speeding outside, already heading to the church, her church without worrying about the effect the rain would have on her hair or clothing, in fact she only worried about the effect the pounding rain would have on her poor flowers, the church's roof was full of large holes and the flowers there were much more precious to her then the garden outside her house, or even herself.

When she finally made it to the church she didn't go into it as most expected but instead began climbing up onto the roof. Having a difficult time with it due to the slipperiness of the wood and metal and she only had one free hand seeing as the other held the blanket she brought tightly. She lost her footing and tossed the blanket onto the roof as she then fell face first into the mud, her pink dress becoming soiled and matting to her skin even more though she hardly took note of it as she resumed her ascent. She made it up onto the roof not without a struggle though, and she crawled to the point of the roof where the largest hole was--above her bed of flowers. She unfolded the blanket and tied the ends around two stake-like objects she had already nailed in long ago. The blanket was thick enough to keep the rain from damaging the flowers but thin enough so some water would still seep through. Once the rain let up she would have to take it down once more.

That half of her duty done she began climbing down the roof, careful not to slip. Once she reached the edge of the roof she lowered herself down onto the windowsill, once she felt that she had a firm footing she lowered her other foot onto it. This resulted in her completely losing her balance causing her to fall backwards into the mud puddle; which had grown relatively in size, so that she was now covered from head to toe in mud.

She muttered as she sat up, waving her hands some to dry and get the mud out from between her fingers, knowing for sure that the first thing she would do at home would be to take a nice long, warm shower. Well, maybe not too long because water was becoming expensive.

She walked into her church and took off her shoes, grimacing as she saw the mud gathered inside her gardening boots.

She made her way slowly to the small area in which her flowers grew careful not to step on any of the remaining shards of glass. She had fixed up the church a long while ago, all for the cleared out area in the middle where the boards were taken off for the garden, it had been nice for a while but then some mischievous brats from one of the other Sectors of Midgar had gone and thrown rocks at all the windows.

Aeris knelt down by the quaint patch of flowers, her own little piece of heaven, to inspect the damage done by the rain. At first glance everything seemed to be fine, no harm done. But upon closer inspection she noticed that a small portion had been completely crushed to the point where the gentle blossoms touched the ground missing most of their petals. Her thin eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she reached out to touch the area with the pads of her fingertips.

It was obvious the rain didn't cause this damage at all, in fact it seemed as if someone had stepped on it. There was a gentle humming noise that she heard in her mind, she had learned that this was the way the Planet communicated with her, and she had also learned how to understand what it meant to say.

The person who had walked all over her garden, well that in itself was an exaggeration but it was how she felt about the situation, was still inside the church. She gasped slightly as the floorboards creaked and her emerald gaze looked up to see the culprit standing not to far from her and approaching from the shadows.

Lightning brightened the room, and thunder crackled adding some sort of dramatic flair to his slow stride. There was a flash of silver as he drew his sword, but all Aeris could really focus on were his green mako eyes. She had never before seen eyes like his…Zack, her boyfriend, had been given mako treatments but his had only received a dull glow, the ones she saw before her seemed to be on fire. And not only was the color eccentric, his eyes were made only more beautiful by the way he tried to hide the emotion in his eyes. So many emotions… she had always been good at seeing what she referred to as 'the inner soul' of a person, no matter how hard they tried to hide it from her.

Whoever this person was, they seemed very confused, alert, and angry though she was positive the anger was meant for someone else. As soon as her gaze left his mind-numbing one she noticed the sword, the very long dangerous looking sword and she immediately stood and took a step back, but only one.

She straightened her dress and moved a strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear, thankful that she had at least had the decency to wipe most of the dirt from her face. She took a deep breath, trying to steady her nervous heartbeat feeling very self-conscious under the piercing gaze of this tall, menacing figure.

"…I…who are you?" she finally managed to ask, his presence demanding for everything to be serious.

He lowered his sword at that time before finally sheathing it seeing her as no threat to him. Which she most certainly wasn't. "My name is Sephiroth, SOLDIER 1st class general." He said, voice low and close to monotone, carefully trying to betray no emotions.

Aeris's eyes widened in recognition of the name, "Wutai's…Sephiroth?" she asked feeling numb at being in front of such a legend.

He grunted slightly and she guessed it was his way of agreeing. So this was the man that had led the great war of Wutai. This certainly was an amazing young man, she had been expecting the general to look like some sort of battle-scarred middle aged man but the one standing before her was anything but old.

His hair was a dazzling silver color, completely exotic and well kept. Green eyes were set in a pale face, eyebrows drawn downwards to make it look like he was always glaring. His face was heart-shaped with one of the nicest chins she had seen; not that she paid much attention to chins but his was very defining, he had thin lips which were currently stretched to a slight frown. She hadn't even realized that a man could look so…well…beautiful. Even when annoyed, which he seemed to be at the moment. Now she understood why so many women threw themselves at him.

She noticed then that he had also been eyeing her, and again she began feeling very self-conscious…meeting a great, handsome general in the state she was in was not one of the best things that had happened to her.

Seeing that he had introduced himself, and she had yet to do so she went ahead to right this wrong, "I'm, ah, Aeris Gainsborough, local flower girl."

She laughed slightly, nervous about the whole situation still. The sword he had been holding must have been none other then the great Masamune, the finest sword ever made by mankind. And Sephiroth was the only one who could wield it with such…grace.

"_You_ grew these?" he asked, seemingly completed surprised.

Aeris could only nod slightly, "Y-Yes."

He looked at her strangely, a look she was quite used to by now, and he simply asked, "How?" he said this begrudgingly, as if annoyed at his curiosity.

"It's a gift I've had ever since I was a little girl." was her only answer.

Without saying a word he walked towards her, walking on her garden again, which was the only reason she didn't back away from him.

She glared at him, tilting her face up to see his clearly, "Who gave you the right to--" she was cut off as he grabbed her chin between his index finger and thumb, seeming not too happy either as he turned her head to different angles.

As her profile faced him, she being too afraid to speak since he could easily break her neck in this position, something caught his eye and he reached out with his left hand to tug at the ribbon which kept her braid in a ponytail. The ribbon came loose and she hurriedly caught the small white materia that fell from it in her right hand, thankful that she didn't drop it.

He looked at the materia in her hand carefully, seeming solemn as he saw it, he looked from the materia to her, back down to the materia in her hand and then he met her gaze once more. "Where did you get that…?" he asked softly, his voice sounding coaxing, almost gentle.

Aeris swallowed, "It was a gift from my mother, Ilfana [2]." She wasn't quite sure why she actually told him her mother's name, perhaps she'd never know.

The silence was long, only broken by the occasional clash of thunder and to Aeris her own racing heart and the hum of the Planet that was always there in the background to her ears and hers alone.

Suddenly without any warning at all she found her lips pressed against his in a soft lingering kiss. Her knees went weak and she was only slightly aware that he had wrapped his arms around her waist to steady her. She felt his warm tongue rub against her lips and she willingly parted them, blushing slightly as she closed her eyes and let him do as he willed, every now and then rubbing her tongue up against his. And when he pulled away a part of her wanted more, everything said yes, but her mind was willing her not to fall into his trap. And the Planet agreed with her thoughts, so she forced herself to gain control of her emotions and pull away as well, but by the time she opened her eyes he was already gone, the rain had slowed to a slow drizzle and she was left alone.

This is when everything hit her, she had kissed General Sephiroth. Or he had kissed her, either way it had been done. She had grasped the sleeves of his black shirt; the warmth of it contrasting to the coldness of the metal shoulder pads he wore. His leather-clad hold on her had indeed felt…well, deliciously good and only two relatively thing straps crisscrossed across his chest. Next time she saw him she would most likely swoon or do something else horribly embarrassing for sure.

She blinked realizing something else, he was her first kiss! She blushed and held her hands to her face as if hiding the blush that no one was there to see, she hadn't even kissed _Zack_ and he had been her boyfriend!

She had just met Sephiroth, spoke to him for close to ten minutes and he stole her first kiss! Or…well, perhaps stole shouldn't be used to describe it, but it was fairly close.

Still blushing Aeris grabbed her shoes, slipped them on grimacing once more at the feel of the mud which was still very moist as she ran from the church heading home, too preoccupied to notice exactly who was watching her as she ran home.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

To be continued…

Keep in mind this is a fanfic. Sephiroth isn't supposed to know where the white materia is, or most likely even about it. But, …this is my fic so there ::sticks tongue out::

Oh…and review? ^^;

[1] Umm…well I haven't played the beginning of the game and I'm not quite sure if I got the Sector number correct, I only know that it's not Sector 7 ^^;  
[2] For those who haven't played the game Ilfana is Aeris' real mother and Elmyra is her adoptive mother. 


End file.
